Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Five Years After Crisis, No Normal Recovery: Reinhart and Rogoff.
- Japan's Monetary Base Slides for First Time Since 2008: Economy. Japan’s liquidity supply dropped in March for the first time in more than three years, fueling politicians’ complaints that the central bank should be doing more to end deflation.
- People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said China's goal is to gradually reduce inflation and that the country is using interest rates combined with other measures to achieve a soft landing. Zhou, speaking on a panel at the Boao Forum for Asia in China today, said using interest rates too much may increase capital inflows.
- RBC Sued by U.S. Regulators Over Wash Trades. Royal Bank of Canada was sued by U.S. regulators over claims that the Toronto-based lender engaged in illegal futures trades worth hundreds of millions of dollars to garner tax benefits tied to equities. Canada’s biggest bank made false and misleading statements about “wash trades” from 2007 to 2010 in which affiliates traded among themselves in a way that undermined competition and price discovery on the OneChicago LLC exchange, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said yesterday in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court. “A fundamental purpose of the futures markets is to provide an arm’s-length mechanism for market participants to discover prices and shift risks associated with products traded in those markets,” CFTC enforcement director David Meister said in an e-mailed statement. “RBC not only designed and executed a wash sale scheme that undermined that purpose, it went a step further and misled the exchange into believing that its conduct was lawful.”
- Australia LNG Boom Threatened by U.S. Shale Exporters: Energy. Australian liquefied-natural gas projects by companies from Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) to Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL) and valued at about $100 billion are at risk from rising costs and cheaper U.S. exports. Natural gas trading at a 10-year low in the U.S. and discoveries in Africa also threaten to slow the development of Australian LNG ventures following the approval of eight projects to meet surging demand from China, Japan and South Korea.
- High School Substance Abusers Start Using at Age 14, Study Finds. The 15 percent of U.S. high school seniors who abuse alcohol and drugs first began using them at age 14 or 15, according to a study that's one of the first to track substance-abuse trajectories during this key period. The finding, reported today in the Archives of General Psychiatry, suggests that prevention programs should begin early in adolescence before problems arise, rather than when abuse becomes obvious, said Joel Swendsen, the lead author.
- Tanker Rates Seen Reversing Rally as Oil Glut Expands: Freight. The fastest expansion in oil cargoes since 2004 is exceeding demand and filling up storage tanks from Egypt to Japan, creating a glut that threatens to reverse the biggest gain in shipping rates in five years. Tankers will be carrying 488.8 million barrels by April 14, 3.9 percent more than the week earlier, estimates Oil Movements, which has tracked cargoes for 25 years. Rates for very large crude carriers, each holding 2 million barrels, will drop 58 percent to average $19,750 a day, the median of six analyst forecasts compiled by Bloomberg shows. Shares of Hamilton, Bermuda-based Frontline Ltd. (FRO), the largest operator, will fall 46 percent in 12 months, the average of 19 predictions shows.
- Sina(SINA) Drops to 5-Week Low After Suspending Weibo Commentary. Sina Corp. (SINA), which runs the Twitter- like Weibo service in China, slid to the lowest in five weeks in New York after the company suspended user comments on its microblogging platform. Sina dropped 2.1 percent to $63.66 at the close on the Nasdaq Stock Market, the lowest price since Feb. 27.
- Wall Street Revamps Muni Swaps. The spike in municipal defaults that some observers forecast for last year never materialized, but that isn't stopping Wall Street from trying to stoke interest in derivatives designed to protect against cities and states not honoring their financial obligations. The efforts, spearheaded by dealer banks like Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., come as pockets of the muni market are showing signs of distress and as traditional bond insurers struggle to bounce back from blows they sustained in the financial crisis.
- Choices Shrink for Subprime Set. A shakeout in the storefront-loan business may make credit even tighter for millions of borrowers with less-than-stellar credit histories.
- SEC Probes Groupon(GRPN). The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining Groupon Inc.'s revision of its first set of financial results as a public company, according to a person familiar with the situation. The regulator's probe into the popular online-coupon company is at a preliminary stage and the SEC hasn't yet decided whether to launch a formal investigation into the matter, the person said.
- Scarred Avon(AVP) Is Takeover Target. Avon Products Inc., weakened by poor financial results, a long-running investigation into alleged overseas bribery and a lame-duck CEO, found itself in play Monday when a smaller rival offered to buy the door-to-door cosmetics company for $10 billion.
- Optical Delusion? Fiber Booms Again, Despite Bust. Telecom contractor Bob Sellenriek recently bought three massive bulldozers and fitted them with cable-burying plows that had been gathering dust in his warehouse for a decade. Mr. Sellenriek needed the plows for something he has done very little of since the telecom bubble burst and wiped out $2 trillion in stock market wealth more than 10 years ago: laying miles of new fiber-optic cable. After years of licking its wounds, and with much of the fiber-optic cable capacity in the ground still unused, the telecom industry is going on another building spree.
- NBC Edited The 911 Audio and Made George Zimmerman Sound Racist.
- Obama Dares The Supreme Court To Overturn His Health Care Law.
- These Two Countries Are Great Examples Of Why Small Governments Work.
- New Generation Of US Nuclear-Powered Drones Would Be Able To Fly For Months Without Refueling.
- On The Hot Seat: 10 Tech CEOs Who Could Be Fired Tomorrow.
- Foodstamp Usage Remains At All Time High, Record Number of Households Receive $277 In Poverty Assistance Monthly. (graphs)
- World's Largest Solar Plant, With Second Largest Ever Department of Energy Loan Guarantee, Files For Bankruptcy.
- 10 'Facts' That Should Worry Europe's Equity 'Fiction'. (graphs)
- U.S. Investigates Possible Internet Threat to NYC. U.S. law enforcement and counterterrorism officials are trying to figure out the significance of recent occurrences on websites believed to have close links to al Qaeda, including a graphic some fear could be an attack threat directed at New York City. The graphic contained a picture of the Manhattan skyline superimposed with a Hollywood-style caption that says: "ALQAEDA - coming soon again in New York." It was posted on Monday by a site called the Ansar al Mujahiddin Arabic Forum, or AMAF, a militant web forum which allegedly has close connections to the Afghan Taliban and a key militant leader in Jordan.
- How a Failed Deal Got Goldman Entangled in Sex Trafficking. It’s another day of nightmare headlines for Goldman Sachs. “Goldman fund to exit company owning sex traffic site,” reads the Reuters headline. “How Goldman Sachs Invested in Child Sex Trafficking,” Jezebel’s headline proclaims. At pixel time a search on Google for the phrase “sex traffic” coupled with “Goldman Sachs” produced more than a half a million hits.
- Goldman(GS) Names Schiro as Lead Independent Director.
Seeking Alpha:
- UAW Wants Volkswagen Workers to Seek Union Election. Labor group starts passing out signature cards as first step. The United Auto Workers union has begun passing out cards to employees of the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga to determine whether there is enough support to hold a union representation election.
- Exclusive: The $1.3 Billion Bond Deal Haunting Goldman(GS). What went into the 2006 Fremont Home Loan Trust from Goldman Sachs that has the SEC so bothered?
- Daily Presidential Tracking Poll. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-nine percent (39%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15 (see trends).
- Cops: 7 Dead, 3 Hurt in Christian School Shooting. A gunman opened fire Monday at a Christian university in California, killing at least seven people, wounding three more and setting off an intense, chaotic manhunt that ended with his capture at a nearby shopping center, authorities said. The gunfire erupted around midmorning at Oikos University. Heavily armed officers swarmed the school in a large industrial park near the Oakland airport and, for at least an hour, believed the gunman could still be inside.
- Cavium(CAVM) Cuts 1st-Qtr Forecast. Chipmaker Cavium Inc cut its first-quarter forecast on lower revenue from the service provider, broadband and consumer markets. Cavium shares were down more than 5 percent after the bell. They had closed at $30.57 on Monday on the Nasdaq.
- CFTC Bans Election-Based Derivatives Contracts. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday issued an order prohibiting the North American Derivatives Exchange from introducing “political event contracts”, which would have been the first regulated products to allow investors to place bets on the outcome of the 2012 US elections.
- Fears Grow in Asia Over US Swaps Rules. Asian banks and regulators are growing concerned about the potential impact of incoming US financial regulations on the markets for swaps and derivatives, which could stifle the ability of Asian clearinghouses to attract business.
Oppenheimer:
- Rated (HMSY) Outperform, target $41.
- Asian equity indices are -.50% to +.75% on average.
- Asia Ex-Japan Investment Grade CDS Index 154.50 -1.5 basis points.
- Asia Pacific Sovereign CDS Index 127.0 +.25 basis point.
- FTSE-100 futures +.13%.
- S&P 500 futures -.05%.
- NASDAQ 100 futures +.01%.
Earnings of Note
Company/Estimate
- (CMVT)/.17
10:00 am EST
- Factory Orders for February are estimated to rise +1.5% versus a -1.0% decline in January.
2:00 pm EST
- Minutes of FOMC Meeting.
Afternoon
- Total Vehicles Sales for March are estimated to fall to 14.6M versus 15.03M in February.
Upcoming Splits
- None of note
Other Potential Market Movers
- The Fed's Williams speaking, Spain Budget Presentation, weekly retail sales reports, ISM New York for March and the Needham Healthcare Conference could also impact trading today.
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